


Cookie Crumbs and Royal Icing

by Ember_Lace



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Baking Competition, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pining, Winter Fest, gingerbread
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27908791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ember_Lace/pseuds/Ember_Lace
Summary: Ignis receives a mysterious email inviting him as a contestant for the Winter Fest Gingerbread Bake-Off. Gladio becomes his partner for the competition.There are feelings here that are being hidden.There's no way this could possibly go wrong.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. The Mysterious Email

**Author's Note:**

> It's taken 4 days to finally settle on the second topic for my mini holiday series! It was supposed to be an advent calendar of sorts, but it's been so long since I've written anything that making words come together is more difficult than I remember. 
> 
> Their personalities in this fic come from reading a lot of other fics haha. In _Parting Ways_ and _Brotherhood_ it's implied (in my opinion) that all the bros didn't spend too much time together before the road trip, and that Prompto hadn't eaten Ignis's cooking outside of a few stolen bites of Noctis's meals. But it's much more fun to make them all spend casual time together in Insomnia as besties. Though I do fear I've made Noctis a little too much of a prankster/cocky, but I'll probably remedy that in a different fic.

Ignis stared at his email in disbelief. _Congratulations!_ the email began, _Your contestant application has been accepted…_ Ignis set his phone onto his desk and, without even bothering to take off his glasses, rubbed his face in irritation underneath them. When he finally had the presence of mind to look at his phone again, he immediately opened his contacts to find Noct’s number. Noctis picked up on the second ring.

“Hey Specs, what’s up?”

“You wouldn’t happen to know why I’ve received an email accepting me as a contestant in a baking competition, would you, Highness?”

“Oh, shit, really?” came the surprised voice on the other end of the line. “I mean… uhh.. No. I have no idea what that’s about.”

Ignis sighed deeply so that it would be picked up by the phone. “Are you home? I’d prefer to discuss this in person.”

There was hesitation on Noct’s end of the line and then came a reluctant, “Yeah. Prompto’s here. We’re playing a new game.”

“Then I shall see you shortly.” Ignis hung up the phone and left his office, heading to Noct’s apartment.

It didn’t take long for Ignis to arrive at Noct’s and he let himself in without ceremony, finding Noctis and Prompto on the couch playing a game just as Noctis had said. He waited for the pair to finish the round of combat they were on before clearing his throat to announce his presence. “Noctis. Prompto.” Judging by the sheepish look Prompto failed to hide, Ignis was sure that he’d surmised correctly when he assumed they’d been involved with the mystery email he’d received. 

“Hey, Specs,” Noctis said with the same easy air that he'd had on the phone. “You wanted to talk about a contest or something?”

Ignis raised an eyebrow, surprised that Noctis was jumping right into the offending topic, considering it was likely due to his own mischief. “Yes, but I think that perhaps I’ll need some coffee for this conversation.” Ignis moved into the kitchen to brew a pot, “Would you like some?”

“Only if there’s dessert to go with it,” Noctis grinned at his advisor who sighed but acquiesced. “I suppose I could make something quickly, if that’s what you wish.”

Ignis was almost finished making a coffee cake when Gladio let himself into the apartment. 

“Didn’t expect you to be here, Iggy,” Gladio said as he sat down at the table so he could talk to everyone. 

“Yes, well, it seems Noct and I have something to discuss. But apparently it must be done with coffee and cake.”

Gladio snorted, “Must be an important conversation.”

“Well actually,” Noct spoke up from the couch, “We needed you to be here too.”

Gladio turned to Noct and raised an eyebrow for a moment before frowning, “What trouble did you get into?”

Noct raised his hands up in surrender, grinning, “No trouble.” Beside him Prompto shifted nervously, but he didn’t look particularly guilty, so whatever it was couldn’t have been that bad.

“Yeah like I fully believe that.” Gladio rolled his eyes, but let himself relax.

“Regardless, the cake is nearly ready now, so I’ll put on the coffee.” Ignis turned to the coffee machine and heard the sounds of Prompto and Noctis turning off their game behind him. Something about their investment in the conversation to come made Ignis even more curious about their involvement in the mystery email.

Only once the four of them were seated around the table with coffee and cake did Ignis bring up the email again. “Now that we’re all settled, would you care to tell me what you know about the email I received today, Noct?”

“Email?” Gladio looked at him across the table, “Is that what this is about?”

Ignis tapped his phone for a moment to load the email and slid it across to Gladio.

> _Dear Mr. Scientia,_
> 
> _Congratulations! Your contestant application has been accepted for the Winter Fest Gingerbread Bake Off! The festivities will be taking place on the 14th at the Tonitrus Convention Center. Registration will be at 6am at the Somnus Hall for Performing Arts._
> 
> _Contestants and their partners are not expected to bring any supplies or baked goods with them This will all be done on site. You’ll also be provided passes for the rest of the Winter Fest festivities._
> 
> _If you have any questions, the Bake Off Support Team can be reached at support@winterfestbakeoff.com._

Gladio read the email out loud and then stared at Ignis. “Why do I get the feeling you didn’t sign up for this yourself?”

There was a beat of silence, where Prompto squirmed uncomfortably in his seat and Ignis stared cooly across the table at Noctis. “Okay,” Noctis began with a sort of easy drawl, “So, Prompto and I were at the mall the other day, and we saw the posters for the bake-off, and we thought, hey, Specs could totally win that, and before we knew it, we’d filled out all of the information and submitted it.”

Ignis was quiet while he processed what Noctis was saying. “Noct, that was more of a terribly long, run-on sentence than an explanation. Though from what I surmise from that, the pair of you are the ones who entered me into this contest?”

Noct smiled a little, “That’s right.”

Prompto squirmed again, “I’m so sorry, Iggy! We didn’t think it would actually end up coming back to you.”

“You filled out an application on my behalf and thought that nothing would come of it?”

“We just thought there would be more applications and it wouldn’t end up being a problem,” Prompto answered miserably, burying his face into his arms.

Ignis sighed, “Well regardless, it seems that I now have a commitment that I hadn’t planned on having.”

“Come on, Specs, where’s your competitive side? You could totally win this competition.” Noctis frowned a little, “Besides, it could be fun. I wanted to go to Winter Fest anyway.”

“Noct, you are a Prince. You have responsibilities and so do I.” 

“It’s one weekend, Specs. I’m sure we can take the time. And if an emergency pops up we’ll do our jobs.” 

Prompto was looking between the two of them nervously. “We do really think that you could win, Iggy,” he added softly.

Gladio took all this in carefully and finally spoke up,“If you think you can handle it, Iggy, it’s really up to you.”

“There is the additional problem of requiring a partner for the competition, even if we can rearrange our schedules,” Ignis pointed out, glancing at all three of them. 

Noct smirked slightly, “Well, Prompto and I are useless in the kitchen, so we were thinking that maybe Gladio could help you.”

The silence seemed to stretch forever. 

Inside Gladio’s head there was a sound like broken gears stuttering against each other. It took all of his power to not curse out loud. Noct had given him a pointed look when he smirked and it set a churning feeling alight in his stomach. He suddenly regretted telling Noctis about what he was thinking about lately. About _who_ he was thinking about lately. He shook his head, “And how am I supposed to do my job keeping you safe at this event if I’m in a kitchen?”

Noctis grinned, “Prompto will be with me. He’s nearly finished his Crownsguard certification. And besides, we’ll be watching you, so we’ll be in your line of sight the whole time.”

Gladio glared at Noct for a moment, trying to think of a better rebuttal than _But it’s my job!_ and then looked over to Ignis for help. Ignis’s expression was even more unreadable than ever. 

“I suppose if we can arrange for extra security then-,” Ignis answered carefully after a while, eyes flicking up to meet Gladio’s, “I wouldn’t be opposed to our partnership.”

Gladio felt his heart stutter momentarily to a halt.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol I finally remembered that when you start writing a fic you should finish it.
> 
> Jokes aside I put too much pressure on myself to write a lot for the winter holidays and then completely didn't write anything, but now I'm participating in a big bang, so I'm working on getting some of my smaller fics finished as well.
> 
> This is a short section but I liked where it ended. This was going to be a two-parter, but now it's going to be three.

On some level, Gladio knew that this was going to be a bad idea. A whole weekend in close quarters with Ignis? Yeah, definitely a bad idea. Such a bad idea that he hadn’t stopped daydreaming about it since it was decided that they’d enter the contest together. Ignis had taken to this in true Ignis fashion - making sure to study all the rules of the competition and devise a plan of attack. Gladio would be meeting Ignis for dinner to go over their plan and he'd be lying if he said the thought hadn't been distracting him all day. As the end of the day drew near, the fluttering in his stomach had turned into acidic churning, and Gladio found himself taking the scenic route to Ignis’s in order to calm himself down. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t done things together like this before. But it was the first time since admitting to Noct - and himself - that he found Ignis attractive and the thought had his insides twisting in knots. When he arrived, Ignis let him in without ceremony and all Gladio could think was: _He doesn’t know. Ignis doesn’t know how I feel and I have to make sure I don’t act weird so that he has no reason to suspect._ That was really all it took for Gladio to calm himself down. He would have been surprised but he didn’t let himself dwell on it. 

Ignis had turned his dining room into a war room of sorts, the table strewn with pages of recipes and architectural notes that would have been at odds with each other if Gladio hadn’t known what it was they were about to do. On the kitchen counter were various takeout containers - an indulgence that Ignis only allowed himself when he was alone with Gladio. Gladio was, after all, the only one who really knew how much he disliked cooking. Baking on the other hand. Well, Ignis wouldn’t be so fired up about the competition if he hated it. Gladio smiled a bit and helped himself to some of the takeout before walking over to the table to examine the notes. At first glance there was no order to the way the various pages were laid out, but Gladio was more or less proficient in Ignis by now and had no trouble deciphering the content. 

“So where do we start?” Gladio took a seat and watched Ignis from across the table. “Have you figured out a plan of attack yet?”

Ignis looked up from the recipe he was reading to look at Gladio. “I’ve got an idea of the basic requirements, but I thought we might make the decisions together.”

Gladio fought off a blush and turned his gaze momentarily to his food. “Yeah? I thought you were the expert here. I’m just an extra set of hands.”

“Extra set of hands or not, your help is invaluable. You should have a say in what we create.” 

Gladio nearly choked on a noodle at the praise. “Well, what do I need to know?”

“According to the bake off rules,” Ignis began, “There’s a structural component and a tasting component.” He picked up a stapled packet full of yellow highlighted sentences. “We have prebake the structural component but absolutely no decorating can be done until the event. The tasting element has to be baked on site on the second day.”

“So, I guess we need to decide on a structure, do a ton of baking and then hope it all fits and we remember how to put it all together?” Gladio raised an eyebrow, hoping he was following Ignis’s thought pattern.

Ignis smiled just slightly - a kind of lopsided smirk that hinted at his genuine amusement. “Yes, something like that.” He pointed to some of the architectural images on the table, “I thought that we might spend tonight deciding on a structure, since we’ll then need to pattern it and then bake.”

“Does the structure have to be a specific size?” Gladio hummed thoughtfully, looking over the images that Ignis had selected. 

“At least 2 feet in width and length and 3 feet tall.”

“Really making it easy for us, huh? Well alright. What about this?” The image that Gladio had selected was the least clear out of all the others, an ancient looking cathedral that was vaguely reminiscent of the Citadel. 

“Interesting choice.’ There was something unreadable in Ignis’s eyes when Gladio looked up to meet them and he found himself starting to frown in response. But then Ignis was continuing on and the feeling faded. “Why did you choose that one?”

“It just seemed like the least likely for other teams to pick. Doing something similar to the others would be… predictable. Even if we suck at this, at least we’ll be unique.” Gladio shrugged and when he looked back at Ignis, he was smiling. 

“I felt the same way. It’s quaint in its own way.”

“I didn’t take you for sentimental,” Gladio teased, glancing back at the image of the cathedral with a sense of fondness now that Ignis has made him think of it as quaint. 

Ignis was quiet for a moment and then changed the subject with a sigh. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“Yeah. Do you want to start on the patterning?”

“I think I’d prefer to leave it for tonight and clean some of this up instead.” Ignis gestured to the paper covered table. “It’s turned into a much larger task than I anticipated.”

Gladio felt his heart wrench as he realized just how much Ignis had already done and how tired he was. “Hey, you’ve got me. You don’t have to do all of this alone. Lean on me as much as you need to.”

The unreadable expression had settled back onto Ignis’ face. “Thank you, Gladio.”

**Author's Note:**

> For the bros and Christmas/Winter Holidays, I flit between calling it a variety of Winter Holidays since they wouldn't technically have Christmas. However, I think of it as like the commercial version of Christmas in which it has nothing to do with religion and in that way the name becomes a bit arbitrary. 
> 
> ...I'm probably overthinking this.


End file.
